her of black-letter
collectors in this country,' was a great and generous patron of
learning, and formed a magnificent library, which at the time of his
death contained nearly twenty-nine thousand printed books and seventeen
hundred and ninety manuscripts. John Bagford was the principal assistant
in its collection, and in return for his services the Bishop procured
him a place in the Charterhouse. The library, which was kept in the
episcopal residence in Ely Place, Holborn, where it occupied 'eight
chambers,' is mentioned in _Notices of London Libraries_, by John
Bagford and William Oldys, where it is stated that 'Dr. John Moore, the
late Bishop of Ely, had also a prodigious collection of books, written
as well as printed on vellum, some very ancient, others finely
illuminated. He had a _Capgrave's Chronicle_, books of the first
printing at Mentz, and other places abroad, as also at Oxford, St.
Alban's, Westminster, etc.' John Evelyn, Bishop Burnet, and Ralph
Thoresby also write in terms of high praise of the excellence and great
extent of the collection. Richard Gough, the antiquary, states that 'the
Bishop formed his library by plundering those of the clergy in his
diocese. Some he paid with sermons or more modern books; others only
with quid illiterati cum libris'; but there appears to be little, if
any, truth in this accusation. Moore, who was anxious that his library
should not be dispersed after his death, offered it, in 1714, to Robert
Harley, Earl of Oxford, for the sum of eight thousand pounds; but the
negotiation failed in consequence, it is said, of the Bishop 'insisting
on being paid the money in his lifetime, though Lord Oxford was not to
have the books till the Bishop's death.' After Moore's decease the
collection was sold for six thousand guineas to George I., who gave it,
on the suggestion of Lord Townsend, to the University of Cambridge. A
special book-plate, designed and engraved by John Pine, was placed in
the volumes. At the same time that the king sent these books to the
University he despatched a troop of horse to Oxford, which occasioned
the two well-known epigrams attributed to Dr. Tripp and Sir William
Browne--

'Contrary methods justly George applies
To govern his two universities,
To Oxford sent a troop of horse;--for why?
That learned body wanted Loyalty.
To Cambridge he sent books, as well discerning,
How much that loyal body wanted learning.'

The reply by Sir W. Browne runs